Image caption
The second wallaby was caught in a huge fishing net just after midnight

A wallaby that was on the loose from a fishery near the boundary between Midlothian and the Scottish Borders has been found.

The 2ft Tasmanian wallaby was caught just after midnight using a fishing net after he was spotted feeding on a 40 acre estate.

The animal swam off an island on a pond at Leadburn Manor, West Linton, with another wallaby on Wednesday.

A local marksman was able to dart the first one on Wednesday evening.

'Furiously swimming'

Francis Gilhooly, owner of Leadburn Manor, told the BBC Scotland news website: "The man who sold the wallabies to us told us that wallabies hate swimming so it would be fine for us to put them on one of our three acre islands.

"However, within six hours of us buying them they were furiously swimming off the island.

"It has been a heartbreaking and traumatic time for both us and the wallabies.

"We will not be releasing them back onto that island because we can't take the chance of them swimming off again so instead we are building a big 1,000sq m enclosure for them.

"We searched the area 30 times for the second wallaby and just as I had given up I saw him sitting in the long grass at one of the ponds, eating."

The Scottish SPCA said wallabies are "extremely difficult" to catch because they can reach speeds of 40mph.